


if you weren’t for me to eat (you wouldn’t be made out of meat)

by OtherCat



Category: Bleach
Genre: Cannibalism, Cannibalistic Jokes, Cannibalistic Thoughts, Canon-Typical Violence, Grimmjow does not know what to do with feelings, Hollow Ichigo - Freeform, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Period Typical Attitudes, Period-Typical Homophobia, Protective Kurosaki Ichigo, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-29
Updated: 2020-03-13
Packaged: 2020-05-30 20:07:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19410475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OtherCat/pseuds/OtherCat
Summary: Battle plans do not survive contact with the enemy. Sometimes a battle plan does not survive contact with a fifteen year old boy acting as a deputy Shinigami who dies and Hollowfies and drags himself to Hueco Mundo to keep from eating his family.To Hueco Mundo in thepast.Title come from the Firefly filk songEvil Laughby Seanan McGuire.





	1. Chapter 1

Ichigo realizes at some point that he never really had a clear idea of what a desert was. Sand, check. Rocks, check. But not empty, and not devoid of life. (Well, whatever you’d call life that are actually Hollows. So far he’s spotted owls, rabbits, lizards, teeny little brown birds, annoying slightly larger grey and black birds that thought they could take him--chomp, crunch--crows, several sizes of rodents and snakes, all with holes through them somewhere. “Plants” so far had been clumps of grass that had actually been thin straws of glass, trees and cacti made out of quartz, obsidian, chalk or flint.)

This is a place with gullies and washes where water might conceivably happen, thunderstorms coming in over the low mountains. (It has not happened in as long as Ichigo has been here in the desert, but the possibility seems to be preserved in the dips and hollows of the land.) It’s a desert full of mountains and canyons; layers of rock silver on white on grey on black. It is absolutely a different kind of desert than the one that had been in the back of his head: Mostly sand dunes, and probably camels.

He had not thought there were kinds of desert, but there apparently are. “I don’t know if I’m remembering this right,” Grimmjow says lazily, flopped out on top of Ichigo like the largest, most assholish housecat. “But the Army--Well, the US Cavalry when that was a thing-- took a look at the desert in Arizona Territory and went, ‘well hell, deserts equal camels, so why don’t we bring in fucking camels.’”

“Didn’t work?” Because Ichigo is also an asshole, he skritches behind Grimmjow’s ears because the stupid dopey look the adjuchas makes just before he gets control of himself is never not hilarious.

“Camels all died, they couldn’t adapt or what the fuck ever,” Grimmjow says. “People still claimed to see herds or the occasional camel here or there a long time after they all died off. Fucking stop that,” he snaps suddenly, shaking Ichigo’s fingers loose, and giving Ichigo a glare that was partly false and partly embarrassed.

“But you liiike it,” Ichigo says.

“I like it so much I’m going to bite off all your fingers and feed ‘em to you,” Grimmjow says. 

“If you tried, I’d flay you alive and use your skin for a hammock,” Ichigo says.

“At least use me for armor, you piece of shit,” Grimmjow protests with an indignation that was both weird and hilarious. 

“Nice comfy hammock. Or maybe I’d turn you into a kotatsu.” Grimmjow gives Ichigo a uncomprehending look. “It’s a table with a blanket and a little heater,” Ichigo explains. “I’d get to cuddle as much as I wanted; instead of after I’ve beaten the shit out of you and you weren’t able to move.”

“You gotta earn this premium cuddle time,” Grimmjow says, and starts to gnaw--or nuzzle--at Ichigo’s seemingly unarmored shoulder. It’s the same difference, really. There is nothing that is really soft about Grimmjow’s armor plated form. Ichigo is tough though, and what isn’t tough, regenerates quickly. Also, Grimmjow isn’t really trying to break through skin at this point. (If Ichigo calls them hickies from hell, he _will_ bite down though.) “How does the blanket not go up in flames? How does the table not go up in flames?”

“You very carefully make sure the heater doesn’t come in direct contact with the wood or the blanket,” Ichigo says. “If I don’t turn you into one, maybe I’ll go back to the Living World and get one. Why the fuck is it so cold most of the time? It’s a fucking desert.”

“Because it’s always night time, genius,” Grimmjow says. “And I’d like to see you try, you little shit.”

“I’ve been trying,” Ichigo says. “I’m lulling you into a sense of complacency and then bam, you’re a rug.”

“Thought I was a kotetsu,” Grimmjow says.

“You could be anything, if I set my mind to it,” Ichigo says. “And it’s kotatsu.”

So it happens like this. Battle plans do not survive contact with the enemy. This is a central and very important rule of strategy. Nothing in a war lines up neatly a) b) c) d). Sometime a) comes last, sometimes c) is first. Sometimes a battle plan does not survive contact with a fifteen year old boy acting as a deputy Shinigami who dies and Hollowfies and finds himself in Hueco Mundo almost immediately. Is there someone who is disappointed in an experiment that failed? Is there someone who is suddenly interested? Is there someone whose strategy is completely destroyed? Does it really matter at this point? Battle plans do not survive contact with the enemy. 

“Finds himself in Hueco Mundo” is possibly a misstatement. There is just enough of the very protective fifteen year old brother left in him when he turns into a Hollow that he is more terrified that he might hurt his family than anything in the world. That one part of him grabs the other by the horn and drags him away from any, _any_ possibility of encountering his father or his little sisters. (He was never an ordinary boy to begin with, however much he might have wanted to be one. He was never going to be an ordinary fifteen year old boy. He was never going to be ordinary in any possible timeline.)

Time is pliable, particularly time in spirit worlds. When Ichigo gets his head together enough that he remembers: _Rukia is in danger!_ He immediately seeks a way to Soul Society. However, Rukia is not of any danger except maybe starvation; Soul Society is apparently not that great of a place as he was initially told. It’s maybe better than a desert full of Hollows, but not by very much. (They don’t even have running water or electricity. They barely have a sewage system. What the hell.) She is very small, and she burns very brightly and he feels for her the same intense concern he might have felt for his sisters, had he seen them in a similar situation.

He wants to help (because of course he does, even though being so close to human souls is horrifyingly tantalizing) but there isn’t a whole lot he can do at this point. If he gets stronger, if he gets better control maybe he can help her. Maybe he can keep what’s going to happen from happening. (He is just enough of a nerd to worry about time paradoxes concerning his own existence, but not by very much.) He vows to get stronger.

(He decides not to eat the red haired kid, since at this end of time he seems to be friends with Rukia. Ichigo is definitely going to keep his eye him though. At the first sign of a heel turn though, that brat had better watch out.)

Eating Hollows as opposed to performing konsou on them and sending them off to Soul Society is hard at first. Ichigo very much does not want to eat something that can talk, even if it’s a terrible monster that mostly talks about doing terrible things for entertainment. Eventually, very slowly, he changes his mind; the little hollows, the hollows that aren’t going to be anything more than animal-level intelligences aren’t enough for him. Ichigo is starving, and he needs to get stronger. (And he really, really hates bullies.) He starts going after stronger, more skilled opponents, makes deals and allies among starveling colonies of Hollows struggling to maintain their individuality and fight off stronger Hollows.

(He still can’t help being protective.)

Then there’s the asshole cat, and his asshole fracciones. They go after him, because he’s strong. He fights them because they’re strong and also they’re assholes. (Not bullies, per se, just assholes, and in his territory being dicks and causing problems.) He fights them, they fight him. He never quite loses, they never quite win. The fights usually end in broken bones, broken (but not dead) fracciones and the asshole cat swearing to get him next time as he retreats.

Ichigo almost likes the cat, eventually. Having someone you can fight, that you can’t defeat, who is always pulling new shit on you is making him stronger, faster. Yelling insults back and forth and tearing up the scenery is immensely satisfying when you’re trying not to worry about someone you owe, who is currently a little kid starving to death in a hellhole and there’s no one you can go to for help. The cat is an _excellent_ distraction from Ichigo’s worries.

He isn’t quite sure what he is to the cat. Ichigo is not stupid enough to assume that it’s the same for Grimmjow. There is a sharper edge, and more desperation to the hunger driving Grimmjow than there is to Ichigo. Ichigo doesn’t get as hungry as Grimmjow seems to, he doesn’t seem to regress as far between meals. Ichigo is pretty sure the first few attacks were more or less in earnest: Grimmjow definitely wanted to eat him, and was going to. Following attacks were outrage that Ichigo hadn’t been an easy mark as Grimmjow had first thought, other attacks had been frustration that Ichigo was progressing so quickly and there was room for only one king, and the more recent attacks well…

Their battles end in snuggling; flopped out next to each other or on top of each other half asleep. They bitch at each other about how the other fought or for any of a dozen different reasons. They tell stories. The fracciones approaching eventually, usually with something--someone--they had caught for dinner. (Never someone Ichigo was protecting, was the unspoken rule.) They talked over dinner and it was strangely companionable, but Ichigo never really drops his guard (and Grimmjow never does either).

They fight and one day, Ichigo’s horns break and the mask cracks into pieces, and what was Hollow, is now boy. (Is now _Visored,_ though he doesn’t know that term yet. Is now _Vasto Lorde_ , which is a term he does know.) He sways and drops to his knees dizzily, staring at the pieces of mask in his hands. Then he stares at Grimmjow who looks absolutely horrified. Or as horrified as a snarling skullcat mask can look.

(There is no mask at all and there is no _hole_.)

“Kurosaki?” Grimmjow asks, his voice is as cracked into pieces as the mask.

“It’s not supposed to come all the way off, is it?” Ichigo asks, dazed. If he were more together, he might tease Grimmjow for the honest concern in his tone.

“No, it really isn’t. If you die in the next fifteen seconds, I’m going to eat you, you know that right?”

“What if it’s the next twenty seconds?” Ichigo asks immediately.

“You know what I mean, asshole,” Grimmjow says, and bowls Ichigo over, nuzzling at him. “How’s your head?”

“It feels weird without the horns,” Ichigo says.

Still in that strange concerned tone Grimmjow asks, “what about the hole?”

Ichigo startled, looks down at his chest. “What the hell? Do they move?”

“Not generally,” Grimmjow says.

(They don’t find the hole, not until _Ichigo puts the mask back on_ during a fight, and a voice that both is and isn’t Ichigo’s declares Ichigo king, much to Grimmjow’s annoyance.)

The new shape (the old shape) means he can help Rukia he thinks (he hopes). Since he doesn’t look like a Hollow, he hopes he can impersonate a “plus” soul. He’s successful at impersonation, less successful at finding Rukia, who it turns out has gone to the academy with her friend Renji to become Shinigami. From there, he finds out that Rukia was adopted into a noble family. This is of course terrible. From what he remembers, the guy Rukia called “brother” was a cold bastard.

He hunts in both the Soul Society and Hueco Mundo, keeping an eye on things from a distance. (Hunting other Hollows who have snuck into Soul Society to raid it.) He isn’t sure how well his disguise might pass to Shinigami captains. He doesn’t see the cat for a long while. There are rumors of Shinigami crossing over into Hueco Mundo, the way he’s crossing over into Soul Society. There are also rumors of deaths, disappearances, defeats. The Shinigami are creating a base, and apparently recruiting. This is beyond strange; from what Rukia had taught Ichigo in the brief time he’d been a deputy Shinigami. The idea of Shinigami working _with_ Hollows was impossible. Hollows were only to be purified and their souls sent to the Soul Society.

The cat turns up again, and he and his fracciones are more humanlike in appearance, their masks broken as if they’d broken through to Vasto Lorde. They’re all dressed in some kind of white uniform. (Though given how varied the outfits are in cut, “uniform” possibly doesn’t fit.) They attack him, but it’s not like usual, or the usual that had developed between Ichigo and Grimmjow. The fracciones don’t keep back and Grimmjow has gone back to flat out trying to kill him. Ichigo is just enough surprised by the force of the attack that he loses ground quickly, and ends up grappling with the cat.

Grimmjow’s teeth close hard on Ichigo’s shoulder, ripping into the meat. Ichigo screams in pain, but freezes at the same time, knowing that trying to rip free will just make the wound worse. “Wh-?” Ichigo tries to ask, the closest thing to a word he’s gotten since the ambush. One of Grimmjow’s hands clamps down hard on his throat, cutting off Ichigo’s voice and his air. Ichigo does struggle now, ignoring the teeth still in his shoulder, but his visions shimmers, and everything goes black.

Ichigo wakes up in a shallow cave in the Living World, half a world away from Japan, in a desert much like the one he’d lived in, in Hueco Mundo. Grimmjow is looming over him. “It was supposed to be kill or recruit,” he says. “Far as anyone knows, it ended up ‘kill,’ as long as you stay the fuck out of Hueco Mundo.”

“Why?” Ichigo rasps. ‘Why,’ having a lot of layers to it right now. His throat and shoulder are already distant aches, and his head spins with a combination of anger, confusion and betrayal.

“Anyone kills you, it’s going to be me,” Grimmjow says. “And ‘recruit’ might end up meaning ‘vivisected.’ Too many fuckers know about your extra tricks, and if Yllforte’s brother finds out you might end up on a table.”

“That’s. Almost sweet,” Ichigo says.

“I’m not _sweet_ on you,” Grimmjow says in English. 

“Are you sure about that?” Ichigo asks, a little mocking.

“Shut up,” Grimmjow says. “Stay out of Hueco Mundo, maybe stay out of Soul Society.

“I don’t think I can do either,” Ichigo says, getting to his feet. He feels wobbly, and more than a little hungry. “There’s people I have to protect.”

“Don’t care,” Grimmjow says. “If you go to Heuco Mundo I’ll kill you for real, you go to Soul Society, if you’re lucky you’ll be destroyed.”

“How about you give me the name of who you’re working for, who I guess is also who I’m supposed to avoid?”

“Aizen Sosuke,” Grimmjow says. “He’s a Shinigami captain, and he’s apparently planning some kind of coup. He made _Barragan_ surrender. Or at least an offer he couldn’t refuse.”

“I’ll stay out of Hueco Mundo,” Ichigo says. “If you keep me up to date on whatever is going on,” Ichigo asks.

“I’ll keep you up to date on how much your ass needs kicking,” Grimmjow says. And in less than a breath he’s in Ichigo’s face, holding onto the sides of Ichigo’s head, kissing him. Ichigo stiffens with surprise, and almost considers biting Grimmjow before kissing back hard. “Inverted sonuvabitch,” Grimmjow mutters against Ichigo’s mouth.

“Stupid bastard,” Ichigo says. He isn’t sure what “inverted” means, but he’s pretty sure it’s an insult. He knees Grimmjow in the groin and they separate. Ichigo feels wary and breathless, Grimmjow looks just as wary, but also pleased with himself. "Fuck off." 

Grimmjow fucks off, exiting the cave. Ichigo can feel a garganta open and close.


	2. Chapter 2

Ichigo wanders the Living World. There are spirits and beings no less powerful or dangerous than Shinigami or Hollows, with their own spirit worlds he occasionally visits. Hollows are the same or similar just about everywhere, but the beings that oppose them are often different from those in Soul Society. There are beings that were never human, and beings that were formerly human, and empowered mortals like Quincies and Fullbringers.

He is an outlier, not quite like anything else that exists. Other established beings don’t know what to make of him, and he doesn’t know what to do about them. Ichigo stumbles through encounters with powers and spirits and ghosts from one end of the Americas to the other. There is no hierarchy he recognizes here, and it changes from one end of the continent to the other. There are many ways of dealing with the same thing, and he is soon slotted into place as a sort of freelance protector, despite his cannibal ghost nature.

He makes friends. He acquires teachers and learns new methods.

“Hey Chinaman!” 

“How many times do I have to tell you I’m not Chinese?” Ichigo says, and settles down at the back corner of the bar where Uncle Joseph had been lurking.

Uncle Joseph waves this off. He was absolutely uninterested in countries or cultures on the other side of the world “Not a Mick either,” he says with a wide, teasing grin.

“Mom wasn’t Irish,” Ichigo says. “Is there anything else I can do?” He had been working for “Uncle Joseph” Delacourt for almost a year now, taking care of supernatural problems the old man was too old and brittle to take care of himself anymore. (Problems he didn’t want to leave yet to his granddaughter, Mary.) Ichigo was learning a lot from the old man, and from the old man’s patrons. 

Uncle Joseph shook his head. “You did what all was asked of you, even after my patron stomped all over you.”

“Well, he didn’t know anything about me,” Ichigo says. “I don’t blame him for being protective. I’d stomp all over me too if people I cared about might be in danger because of me.”

“That’s true, isn’t it,” Uncle Joseph says, amused. The old man had pried out a lot of things about Ichigo’s past, with a rough sort of kindness. Uncle Joseph was an easy man to confide in and Ichigo had appreciated the listening ear. “I think he has a little more trust in you now. Not so sure about the cat that’s been lurking around for the past few weeks.”

Ichigo goes still. “A cat on two legs with a hole through his middle?”

“Friend of yours?” Uncle Joseph asks.

“That depends on why he’s lurking,” Ichigo says.

He finds out from Joseph where exactly Grimmjow has been lurking, and goes there. He finds Grimmjow in an abandoned house that Ichigo had stripped of negative energy the week before. The windows are boarded up, and the interior is full of dust, insects and rats. To Ichigo’s disappointment, he is not able to sneak up on Grimmjow. The Hollow looks to where he is immediately, and isn’t at all surprised. “Kurosaki,” he says.

“What are you doing here?” Ichigo asks, unfriendly.

“Well hell, didn’t you ask for me to keep you updated?” Grimmjow asks sounding half mocking, half offended, and altogether amused.

“I haven’t seen you in two years since you dumped me in Arizona,” Ichigo says, his tone considerably drier than the Territory in question. “I figured you decided to just fuck off.”

“And I figured you’d pop back into the Soul Society or Hueco Mundo immediately like an idiot,” Grimmjow says in return.

“No, I’ve been wandering around,” Ichigo says.

“Protecting little old plus mortals?”

“Joseph Delacourt doesn’t need a lot of protecting,” Ichigo says. “Or more like, he has a whole lot of it, and he agreed to give me some pointers. I also picked up some things out west.”

Grimmjow gives Ichigo a narrow, interested look. “Well hell, why don’t you show off then?”

Ichigo steps sideways, appearing to disappear, and watches Grimmjow immediately go on the alert. This time he manages to get up behind Grimmjow, and kick him in the back of the knee. Grimmjow twists as he goes down with the snort of a laugh, swiping at where Ichigo could reasonably be expected to be, but Ichigo has stepped out of range and back in. He punches Grimmjow hard enough to knock the Hollow off balance and onto his ass.

Grimmjow recovers and manages to get hits in, though he gets frustrated that Ichigo won’t draw his sword. They mostly punch, kick and wrestle with each other until Ichigo gets Grimmjow pinned, and Grimmjow sulkily goes limp. Then they both flop on their backs, lying shoulder to shoulder. Grimmjow has his hand over Ichigo’s. On of Ichigo’s legs is crossed over one of Grimmjow’s. Ichigo can’t help but feel a little nostalgic for their fights in Hueco Mundo. Grimmjow bitches about how it had barely been a fight. (This is also nostalgic.)

“We’re aren’t in the middle of Hueco Mundo, jackass,” Ichigo tells him. “I’d rather not destroy the house or this entire block.”

“This house is a wreck anyway,” Grimmjow argues

“The house is in the middle of a neighborhood,” Ichigo points out. “It’s a shitty neighborhood, but there are people living here. Also, we’ll get stomped.”

“You still care too fucking much about shit.” Grimmjow sneers. “What’s out there that has your ass running scared?”

Ichigo rolls his eyes. “It’s not running scared to not want beings you can’t really sense because they’re that much more powerful than you, mad at you.”

“I didn’t get a whiff of anything out there,” Grimmjow says with a skeptical snort.

“Kind of the point I was making. You _can’t_ sense them, and if you _can_ sense them, you’re a _pancake_.”

Grimmjow scoffs, but is silent for a while. Eventually he fills Ichigo in on what’s going on in Hueco Mundo, and a little of what’s going on in Soul Society. “Aizen’s still consolidating power in Hueco Mundo while I guess playing mild mannered captain in Soul Society,” he says. “Still don’t know all of what he intends, also he’s a condescending son of a bitch. Don’t know how anyone over there don’t see that, it’s clear as fuck to any Hollow.”

“Maybe he’s better able to hide it with other Shinigami.” Ichigo pauses for a beat. “Maybe you’re just super-sensitive.”

“Fuck you.”

“Only if you’re really lucky,” Ichigo says. Grimmjow snorts.

“You’re a dumbass,” Grimmjow says.

“You kissed me and ran off like a shy little girl,” Ichigo says. “You were gone for _two years_. What does that make you?”

“Aw, were you _pining_?” Grimmjow asks in a ragging tone. “Think that makes you more a girl than me. And you told me to fuck off so I did.”

“Nah, too busy trying to get people to come up with a better fucking nickname than ‘Chinaman,’” Ichigo says with a sigh. “You’d think the people who went ‘oh no, you are definitely going to trade with us, and we are definitely not going away til you do’ would be able to get it right, but no.”

“And yet you’re still here, getting called Chinaman,” Grimmjow points out.

“I’ll be traveling soon,” Ichigo says. “I want to go to Egypt next, maybe other parts of Africa, then maybe Europe before I go back to Japan.”

“Going the long way around?”

“Something like that,” Ichigo says.

“What about those people you want to protect?” Grimmjow asks.

“They’re why I’m taking the long way around,” Ichigo says.

Very carefully, Grimmjow asks, “Taking on Aizen?”

Ichigo pretends to consider the question before answering, “Am I going to tell one of his boys about it if I have any plans like that at all?” he asks.

“Don’t call me his fucking _boy_ ,” Grimmjow growls.

“Okay,” Ichigo says in an easy, casual tone that makes Grimmjow growl again, and give Ichigo an acidic glare. (He does not move away.) “I’m learning as much as I can, and this is not an area where I’m a fast student. There are people I have to protect.” _And some of them might not get born if I’m not careful,_ he doesn’t say. He’s worried about it some nights, accidentally preventing a soul from reincarnating there, interfering with the conception of someone’s grandparent there. “Why are you working for him if you don’t trust him?”

“There’s only room for one at the top, and right now Aizen’s the strongest,” Grimmjow says. “You think I’m any more loyal than I have to be?”

“I don’t know, _are_ you?” Ichigo replies. 

“I’m here, aren’t I?” Grimmjow asks. “Maybe _I_ have someone I want to protect.” The tone is mocking and flippant. There might or might be something underneath it.

“You left one hell of a scar,” Ichigo says, guessing maybe, about who Grimmjow might mean. Maybe also asking, a little. He still remembers the shock of pain as the Hollow’s teeth went in, the feel of Grimmjow’s hand around his throat. It sends the weirdest chill through him, and settles in his gut. (He remembers getting kissed, and the warnings that might have been disguised as threats, but were still warnings. He remembers the look on Grimmjow’s face after the kiss.)

“Heh. Let me see.” Grimmjow sits up on one hip, pulls aside the collar of Ichigo’s shirt, which has lost buttons during their fight. He studies the bite he left on Ichigo’s shoulder. It’s a deep, ragged semicircular scar, a little lighter compared to the surrounding skin. Ichigo feels his face heat up, and almost wants to knock Grimmjow’s hand away. He doesn’t move. “Yeah, looks like I got you good back then. You don’t have any kind of hierro at all, do you?”

“I regenerate fast, so I don’t think I need it.”

Grimmjow snorts. “Like hell you don’t need something; you’re like a soft shelled crab, almost.” He grins evilly. “Tasty like one too.”

“I _really_ don’t want to hear how tasty you think I am,” Ichigo says. (He’s thinking about the bite. He’s thinking about the kiss. They are getting weirdly tangled.)

“You don’t?” Grimmjow asks in a low voice. “I could have drunk your blood like good whisky, and dug into you like a fine rare steak. It took all I had not to rip you open and bolt you down like I’d been starving in a pit once I got my teeth into you.”

“By really don’t want to, I mean I will _break_ your teeth if you don’t stop,” Ichigo says, shivering a little. It isn’t fear he’s feeling, nothing even akin to it. It should be frightening, Ichigo thinks, being compared to food. (Grimmjow is also food, and part of him wants to know how Grimmjow tastes. Part of him wants to leave a mark on that iron skin.) He bares his teeth, which aren’t much in this shape. “Or maybe find out how _you_ taste.”

“Really?” Grimmjow asks sounding weirdly interested. “You want to have a second round?”

“Not here,” Ichigo says. They’re quiet for a while. Quiet enough to hear crickets chirping and a baby crying (maybe three houses down) and someone getting kicked out of the house for being a no-good cheating bastard two houses down in the other direction. “So I found out what ‘invert’ means,” he says casually.

“Thought you didn’t want a second fight, Kurosaki.” Grimmjow’s tone is flat.

“Did I call you one? No, I didn’t,” Ichigo says. “And you called me one first, anyway. Kissed me first, too. So I’m wondering if you think it doesn’t count if you’re the one doing the kissing. Or maybe it counts if I kiss back or some bullshit like that.”

Grimmjow snorts. “You spend a lot of time thinking about that kiss Kurosaki? Pining, like I said. And who’s to say I was calling _you_ an inverted son of a bitch?”

“No one else there except you,” Ichigo says. “And fuck you I wasn’t pining. Wondering if I’m going to need snow shoes for my trip to Narnia maybe, but not pining.”

“What the fuck does that even mean?” Grimmjow asks. “What the fuck is Narnia?”

“I’ll tell you in a few decades,” Ichigo says with a short laugh. Feeling a little reckless, he moves in and kisses Grimmjow. Not on the mouth, but the shoulder, the same and equivalent spot where he’d bitten Ichigo. Grimmjow shivers a little, his chin tilting up like he’s daring Ichigo to bite down.

Ichigo follows along the line of Grimmjow’s throat, kissing smooth, cool skin. Grimmjow makes a soft little noise like he can’t help it, and falls back, pulling Ichigo along with. The movement surprises a noise out of Ichigo that makes Grimmjow snicker. They roll on the dusty floor, not quite wrestling, trading kisses and nips as they strip each other bare.

They slide and buck against each other while Ichigo does his best to put some kind of mark on Grimmjow’s hierro with his teeth. (He is not successful, though things might have gone differently if shifted to a more Hollow shape like the Hollow side kept insisting he should.) Grimmjow is returning the favor, sucking black and blue marks all over Ichigo’s scarred shoulder when they’re interrupted by an intense spiritual pressure. Grimmjow groans and swears, pushes Ichigo away. “Fucking Gin,” he mutters. “I’ve been gone too long.”

“How much trouble will you be in?” Ichigo asks, instantly concerned.

Grimmjow gives Ichigo an aggravated look. “Nothing I can’t handle,” he says. They both get dressed but Grimmjow stops Ichigo before he can follow after Grimmjow. “You’re supposed to be keeping out of sight, asshole,” he says.

“I don’t like the way you answered my question,” Ichigo says.

“I don’t give a fuck. Stay out of sight or I’ll kick your ass.” He starts to head for the door, but Ichigo catches him by the arm. Instead of shaking Ichigo off, Grimmjow stops and glowers.

“I’ll stay out of sight if you answer--” Ichigo’s argument is cut off by an immense thump. (It wasn’t actually a thump. There was no sound. It just felt like there should be one. The approaching spiritual pressure winks out.) “Pancaked,” Ichigo says. “I’m not sure who we can thank for that. He’s probably just knocked out.”

“What the fuck was that, Kurosaki?” Grimmjow asks. The look on his face reminds Ichigo of the look when he saw that Ichigo’s mask had completely broken off. “Don’t fucking laugh at me. What the hell?”

“Kami? Joseph calls them saints. Lots of reiastu. Your friend shouldn’t have come in hellbent for leather.” 

“Wouldn’t call him a friend,” Grimmjow said.

“Well, get him out of here,” Ichigo says. “What did you say you were doing here?”

“Mostly tracking down fuckers who weren’t playing nicely and doing what they were told. They opened up a garganta here so I followed ‘em.” Grimmjow snorts. “Didn’t expect you to be so hard to find.”

“I had lots of motivation,” Ichigo says. He herds Grimmjow out the door. Grimmjow gives Ichigo a dagger-eyed look, which Ichigo ignores. They end up on the tiny porch. “So, Gin seems pretty powerful. Stronger than you?”

Grimmjow grumbles at the idea, but nods. “Him and the other shingami with Aizen are pretty strong.”

“Okay so, here’s the story. You got the Hollows you were after, but that big thing turned up and tore you up so you went off to lick your wounds. Too bad, so sad, Gin ran into the same thing, but here you are dragging him back to Hueco Mundo.”

“Except I’m not nearly tore up,” Grimmjow points out.

The Hollow side grins as Ichigo pulls his mask down. He can feel the change like a wave, shaking out horns, orange mane, spines and tail. He’s taller in this shape, stronger, though still all lean muscle. He can see further and hear better. “Not yet you’re not,” Ichigo says, all cheerful threat. “And no, we’re still not fighting here. I’ll show you a place.” 

“You have another think coming if you think I’m going to let you knock me around just so it looks like I got in trouble.”

“Never said you should,” Ichigo says.


	3. Chapter 3

In Africa, Ichigo acquires a distinct dislike for Imperialism during his travels. He manages not to start any revolutions, but it’s a near thing. Ichigo kills Hollows and things that are worse than Hollows. He meets powers and presences, who don’t have any more idea of what to do with him than the powers and presences of the Americas. After a battle that goes epically wrong, injuring him to the point that even his regeneration was having a problem, he meets a human with immense power. She is a healer and a shapeshifter, and she takes him back to her village, and he stays there a while. It’s far from anywhere important, and concealed from anything or anyone dangerous.

(The only names she seems to have are Old Woman, or Grandmother.)

Most of the villagers are some relationship to the healer, and have a high level of reiatsu, a number of unexpected gifts. It’s a place where Ichigo finds himself feeling the most at home, learning the languages spoken, hunting or helping in the gardens. (He learns that goats are nearly impossible to keep in their enclosures. Likewise the stupid, vicious little blue-gray chickens the village keeps. He also learns healing, though he’ll never have the sheer level of ability and talent that Grandmother has.) When he’s rested and restless to travel again, he’s guided away from the village, and one of the villagers takes away his memory of the village’s location, and most of the details of his stay.

Ichigo spends the Great War in Europe, wishing he were just about anywhere other than Europe during the Great War. What keeps him there is the number of Hollows and how completely unprepared the Shinigami seem to be concerning them. (Ichigo suspected they were expecting some long, drawn out conflict lasting years or even decades, or something more like the various civil wars, not this constant barrage of death and destruction and Hollows rising up to eat their way through foxholes and across battlefields. They weren’t up to date on the changes in military technology and tactics, or hadn’t fully taken them into account.) The Shinigami were also fighting a war with the Quincies, who were in turn attempting to destroy the rising Hollows while defending themselves from the Shinigami. (Who were doing a shitty job of putting down the Hollows because they were fighting the Quincies.)

It was a headache, and Ichigo was still worried about accidentally creating a paradox or something. He mostly manages to stay out of the Shinigami-Quincy conflicts, hunts Hollows and occasionally gets more hands on experience in field medicine than he really ever wanted. He does not run into Grimmjow or any of the Shinigami he was specifically warned about.

(He’s a battlefield ghost. The voice in your ear when all you can hear are bombs, telling you you’re going to be fine. The driver in the medical van who gets you to the hospital, but no one knows who the fuck he is. He was the nameless medic who found you and splinted your leg, and kept you from getting gangrene. He was the ginger kid in weird clothes who somehow kept the dark from eating you. Ichigo doesn’t know he’s a thousand stories told by soldiers on all sides of the war. He’s a report that a cat-eyed goddess of flash buries.)

He’s in Korea during the 1920 and 30s he when he meets the Visored, and that’s…an experience. They don’t know what to make of him. He doesn’t know what to make of them, and has no intention of giving away that he’s from the future. He meets Urahara and Yoruichi (again) and it’s an effort not to give himself away, while also presenting himself as an ally. (They don’t know what he is, and in Urahara there is a particularly gleeful sort of curiosity, the curiosity of a kid who wants to take something apart to see how it works.)

He learns a lot more about Aizen from them, and they end up being…allied. More or less; they don’t trust him. Yoruichi and Urahara particularly don’t trust him, while being incredibly curious. He trains with them, and they study him, curious about how a Hollow could also be Visored, or also a Quincy. (This is a surprise. He would have thought given how allergic Quincy were to Hollows, he would have immediately blown up the instant he became one.) He has no answers for them, which just makes them suspicious. And they are very suspicious.

Grimmjow turns up while Ichigo is hunting Hollows in a city, with a little arrancar girl in his arms. Her mask is horrifically cracked, the wound rapidly leaking reiatsu. Despite the wound, the kid was alert. Despite being held by Grimmjow, she was reasonably calm. Logically, Ichigo knew that for a Hollow a child shape didn’t equal being a child, but he couldn’t help but feel worried and protective

“I brought over a snack,” Grimmjow says, before Ichigo can ask who the kid is, and what’s going on.

Ichigo is about to say something along the lines of “fuck no,” (despite the entire knowing child shape not equally actual child) when the little girl twists around like an eel in Grimm’s grip and bites Grimmjow _hard._ She cracks right through the hierro, and there is blood.

Grimmjow yowls and drops the kid, who follows up with a kick. “Dammit, girl that was a joke!” he says, barely dodging the kick.

“I dun care, Grimmjo!” The little girl shouts. “I’ll eat you first!” Then she turns tail and runs like a rabbit.

“Fucking hell,” Grimmjow says. “Now we gotta catch her again.”

“We? Who is she, and what the hell is going on, Grimmjow?” Ichigo asks as he follows Grimmjow, who’s heading off after the kid.

“Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck,” Grimmjow says. “She used to be Tres Espada but she got jumped. Nnoitra got tired of her lecturing him about being less of a complete bastard. I think he tried to kill her but obviously it didn’t take. How the fuck she’s alive I don’t know.”

“And you brought her here because?” Ichigo asks.

“Well you’re both bleeding hearts, so I figured you’d get along,” Grimmjow says.

Nelliel leads them on a chase through the city. She manages to stay in sight, but just out of reach. (She is playing them. Ichigo knows she is. He can hear her crying _and_ giggling as she runs and fails to hide.) After six hours of this, she’s still going, the sun is just thinking about coming up, and Ichigo feels like dropping. “How the hell does she have so much energy?” he asks as he flops out on the rooftop of a restaurant.

“Fuck if I know.” Grimmjow says, flopped out beside him. “Goddamn it Nel, fuck if I ever do you a favor!” he shouts.

“You’re dumb! And mean!” Nelliel’s voice floats from the other end of the roof. She doesn’t sound even a little tired. “I want to go back to Heuco Mundo! I want my brothers!”

“No good deed ever goes unpunished,” Grimmjow mutters.

“Grim, did you kidnap that kid?” Ichigo asks with sudden suspicion.

“No!” Grimmjow says.

“Yes!” Nelliel says at the same time.

“Goddammit, you can’t just go fucking around in the desert with your fucking fracciones,” Grimmjow says, craning his head around looking for Nel. There are not a lot of places she could be hiding, on this roof, but she’s nowhere in sight. “What if something comes and finishes you off? What if Nnoitra decides to go after you again?”

Nelliel makes a rude noise, and doesn’t otherwise answer.

Ichigo snickers. “She kind of reminds me of one of my sisters,” he says. What he thinks he remember of them, anyway. And suddenly, he misses both of them. “I have two; Karin and Yuzu. They’re twins, but not alike at all.”

Grimmjow gives him a sidelong look. “Still alive?” he asks, surprised.

“I went to Hueco Mundo so I wouldn’t hurt them,” Ichigo says.

The look turns into an almost-glare. “How the fuck, Kurosaki?” he asks rhetorically. His eyes widen, as if he’s just realized something, or something he’s suspected makes sudden sense. “You aren’t whatever soul or conglomerate of souls that fought its way to the top, are you? Any souls you took on came after, didn’t they? What. The. Fuck?”

“I’m not sure,” Ichigo says. “But given some things I’ve learned…probably something to do with Aizen?” He explains what little he knows about the Visored, and how he probably is one.

“Lord Aizen would do something like that?” Nelliel asks, sounding angry. She comes over from wherever she’d been hiding, and sits down by Ichigo. “He said he wanted to help people. He said he wanted to make everything better for everyone.”

“Yeah well, mostly he’s talking out of his ass,” Grimmjow says.

Ichigo immediately, reflexively smacks him. “Don’t swear in front of a little kid!”

“I was swearing before, you bastard!” Grimmjow shouts, and dodges the second smack.

“Yeah but she wasn’t sitting right there before!”

Nelliel giggles at the both of them, moving away from them as they wrestle across the roof. “I’m not,” she says when the fight ends with Ichigo flopped out on top of Grimmjow. “I’m not really a kid.” She sounds sad about it. “I wish I were big me. How can I take care of my brothers if I’m little?”

“They’re dumbasses, but I _said_ I’d keep an eye on them,” Grimmjow says. “And Kurosaki can keep an eye on you.”

“Did anyone ask me about this?” Ichigo demands. “I don’t think anyone asked me about this.”

“You’re a bleeding heart, of course you will,” Grimmjow says. 

“You don’t have to do anything Grimmjo says!” Nelliel says. “He’s mean and dumb. And ugly.”

Grimmjow makes deeply offended noises that become even more offended as Ichigo laughs at him. “I generally _don’t_ do anything Grimmjow says,” Ichigo replies. “I wouldn’t mind keeping an eye on you, if you were okay with it. And maybe I could help you with your mask.”

“It’s broken,” Nelliel says. “How can you fix that?”

“We’ll figure it out, somehow.”

“Okay,” Nelliel says. She gives him a thoughtful, serious look that didn’t match her apparent age. “I’ll stay with you, Kurshaki, if Dumbjow protects my brothers.”

“Oi!” Grimmjow yelped, glaring at the tiny girl. “You little shit!”

Nel blew a raspberry in response and giggled, obviously tensing to spring off the roof and start another game of tag.

“Grimm, I will throw you off this roof if we have to go chasing after her,” Kurosaki threatens.

“I’d like to see you try, Kurosaki!”

Grimmjow sticks around for a few days, filling Ichigo in on things he’s learned. Occasionally Nel chimes in, though she gets distracted, and sometimes upset when she can’t remember something. Grimmjow gets stuck sometimes, because he doesn’t have the kind of background knowledge to explain what sounds like some serious mad scientist bullshit. Ichigo takes notes, wishing he had a laptop, or the equivalent of the goddamn internet. (He is sure the Shinigami have something like computers, maybe even something like the internet, even this early. Ichigo doesn’t have the background knowledge to ask the right questions, and doesn’t dare ask about Shinipedia.) 

The Visored pop up on the evening of the second day with accusations and jumped conclusions. Ichigo, backed by Grimmjow, fights them to a parley. (By way of knocking out Shinji and running like hell with him over Ichigo’s shoulder while Grimm snagged Hiyori and Nel brought up the rear. Ichigo heads to one of his safe houses, and drops the two Visored on the floor, putting up the strongest shields he can manage around it.) Hiyori squalls in outrage when she’s dropped. Nel immediately headbutts her, then grabs her mask and howls in pain, which manages to completely silence Hiyori, where the headbutt mostly hadn’t.

“What the hell, Kurosaki?” Hiyori demands as Ichigo immediately scoops up the tiny arrancar, who clings like a very loud limpet as he tries to see if she gave herself a concussion. “How long have you been talking to the arrancar?”

Ichigo ignores Hiyori for a moment, trying to get Nel to let him see the crack in her mask. “Nel, let me see the mask. Grimm, does the crack look any bigger to you?”

“About the same as before,” Grimm says. “Probably just rattled her brains.” As casual as Grimmjow sounds, he’s in a defensive stance, ready for the next round. 

“Answer me, Kurosaki!” Hiyori demands. Ichigo can hear how off-balance she is, dizzy from the headbutt and looking for an opening to either escape or attack. Meanwhile, Nel’s crying has settled down to a sniffle. Ichigo hugs her reassuringly, though he feels a little guilty about it. Nel wasn’t a little girl, and he shouldn’t treat her like one. (Nel didn’t seem to mind though, so it was probably okay.)

“I have no idea how to answer that question,” Ichigo says. “I’ve known Grimmjow since he was a adjuchas. I met Nel a couple days ago. If you hadn’t shown up they wouldn’t have known a damn thing about you.” 

“And you wouldn’t have said a thing about knowing them,” Shinji slurs as he returns to consciousness.

“Mostly because I don’t _betray my friends_ ,” Ichigo says slowly. “If you had _waited_ and _asked_ what the hell was going on, I would have told you.”

“What would you have told us, though?” Shinji asks in return. “You haven’t exactly been forthcoming about your allegiances, except for being sharing an enemy. Who I’m not sure is an enemy to you, if you’re working with arrancar.”

“He’s definitely an enemy,” Ichigo says. “I’m only alive because of Grimmjow.”

“Who’s obviously one of Aizen’s Espada,” Shinji replies.

“Well, it was the quickest way for him to get even close to my level,” Ichigo says, because he can’t not.

“Fuck you, Kurosaki,” Grimmjow says, not looking away from the two Visored.

Ichigo bites the side of his cheek to keep from saying the most obvious things to come to mind. _Not now, maybe later,_ for instance. “Aizen’s my enemy. Grimmjow is my ally, and not really much of an ally of Aizen. So, this may or may not have fucked up _my informant’s_ cover. You probably also blew mine, if Aizen wasn’t curious about the mysterious possible vasto lorde in the living world he might be now. That was something I was trying to avoid.” 

Shinji actually winces a little at that. “The plan was to subdue and interrogate,” Shinji says. Admits. “We didn’t expect the high level of cohesion when you fought beside the arrancar.”

“The arracar’s got a name,” Grimmjow says in a flat tone. “I’m Grimmjow Jaegerjacquez.” He whacks the back of Ichigo’s head. “Informant? The fuck are you, a Pinkerton agent?” he asks in English. Ichigo snickers.

“Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck,” Nel says by way of introduction, glaring at the two Visored.

“Well, your friends are coming up with reinforcements,” Ichigo says. “I’d really rather talk about this, and see where to go from there.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note One: I have borrowed a character from Octavia Butler's [Wild Seed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Seed_\(novel\))   
> and given her a Bleach iteration. Because of reasons. >_>
> 
> Note Two: Yes the timeline is borked. You can't not break a timeline. The butterfly has flapped its wings, Ichigo. 
> 
> Note Three: Some history about the [Pinkerton Detective Agency.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton_\(detective_agency\))


End file.
